Defending the Reich - the war is over

[Plaid]

Zechi continues to counterattack my beachhead with significant casualties to both of us.



Thanks to Neil's advice, my infantry captured Norwich from weak garrison.



Number of british units killed on beachhead. If I somehow get fair next turn (and if Zechi will not deploy corps instead of garrison), southmapton can fall (2 bombers 2 ships + panzer + alpini)

Also built 2nd general (ind) lab for italians, now they have 6.

[Crazygunner1]

You are probably right about afrika....very hard to win anything there now. I am just worried about your oil situation. You will have to very economic to have any oil at all....

Two good turns for you in England, capturing that port and maybe southhampton as well, nice job....

[gerones]

Plaid, if you capture Southampton and then its sea port Portsmouth, the brits would be really in trouble...

[schwerpunkt]

You are probably right about afrika....very hard to win anything there now. I am just worried about your oil situation. You will have to very economic to have any oil at all....

Plaid,
You are going to have to try and make taking the western Ukraine a priority when you do Barbarossa as you need to keep the russian STRs as far away from Ploesti, as long as possible....

[Plaid]

Plaid,
You are going to have to try and make taking the western Ukraine a priority when you do Barbarossa as you need to keep the russian STRs as far away from Ploesti, as long as possible....

If Zechi decide to fight me there, it will be almost impossible to advance this far. Also early soviet bomber is very weak against fighters, and late one...Well, late one is not as great problem, as dozen of armour units. I think all I can do is to place romanian FTR atop resource and german one in MED weather zone.
Also in games I played with Jay and Frank (and using MED strategy) I launched very weak barbarossa's on 15 august, and both of them retreated to Dnepr-Dvina ("Stalin's line") or even further to the east for good, despite my forces being so small.
So we will see.

[Plaid]

You are probably right about afrika....very hard to win anything there now. I am just worried about your oil situation. You will have to very economic to have any oil at all....

Two good turns for you in England, capturing that port and maybe southhampton as well, nice job....

Well, rule is simple. No long and massive offence in the east - no oil consumption. And I am going to build infantry army, since its only thing I have PPs to afford now.

[Plaid]

Weather changed to winter now, but I have at least armour and bombers, which are more or less effective at this weather, while Zechi's units (including BBs he effectively used to kill my mechs) became almost useless.

Anyway, some more allied counterattacks (why? he can't drive me to the sea anyway, just waste of men).

BB tryed to leave London harbour, probably willing to sink my DD. None shall pass hehe, though result was 1 : 0 in RN favour, BB stands still in London and will share city's fate



1 step infantry was destroyed by stukas, also I replaced sub with fresh 10 step one.

German armour attacks, despite cold weather and lack of supply :



One more garrison gone, it was deffinetely good idea to bring panzer here that turn. I don't think that infantry and especially garrisons can harm it at bad weather.
Supply also restored, units on beachhead receive minor reinforcements and ordered to stand ground. I think I can lose my Italian corps here, but british garrisons will take some casualties aswell.

Garrison with manpower penalty spotted - good good.
From Zechi's mail

<...>However, the British losses are high. British General staff estimates that British losses are three times bigger than German and Italian losses. Recruiting new young man for the Army becomes more and more difficult.

My 2 new mechs are ready and placed near wilhelmshaven to take part in second wave of sealion in spring and finally finish England off. Maybe I will end overruned by russians by 1943, who knows, but England will be conquered.

Large hungarian force railed to deal with british GAR in Orleans. Not like they can harm me, but it is something...wrong, to allow them sit here.



PPs, which I didn't use on repairs, were saved to build all 3 labs (inf + arm + air) at 1st turn of 1941 - I want at least big tech superiority to have a chance in Russia.
Also I am thinking about new SUB.

[Plaid]

Expected loss of italian infantry, but mostly all quiet.



At my turn I knocked a bit more steps out of british army. Also RN BBs were attacked by subs, some damage scored.

Tryed to bomb strategically british coal mine, but inflicted no damage.



1 more mech and 1 more corps purchased for germany.

I sent my italian fighter to spot some british forces, but it seen nothing. Either they are shipping now to England or just stand further to the east, who knows.

[Plaid]

We have new seitzkrieg in England, and I don't mind.
Reinforced all my units by 1 again, also bombed low effectiveness garrison, though with little succes.



Britain DoWed Syria this time.
I repaired garrison, but it seems doomed anyway.



Axis supply in africa back to 13 - either LL DD or beaten one gone to MED.

I should have enough PPs next turn, to build my labs. Soon after it I will achieve fixed defences level and start to produce masses of corps infantry units.

Also fair weather theoretically possible two turns later, but I don't want to sent transports until march, because its just 25%.

Plan is to overrun both Norwich region (sad, there is no port) and Southampton - Plimouth with transports, together with attack from beachhead. England will fall.

[rkr1958]

Interesting AAR. It looks like you are going to deliver a crippling blow to the Brits and secure the west fairly well. It also looks like this game is going to be won or lost now in Russia. One thing that would concern me is how low your oil is. I would suggest a lot of infantry and a lot of mechanized units for Russia. Also, I see England and Northern Ireland taking several more turns to finish up.

[Plaid]

Indeed England will take some time to finish off, but after fall (or just blocking) of London good units and air support are just optional, because britts will have lower supply and, more important, will be unable to deploy new units.

With later barbarossa I will gain more soviet oil also, and infantry + mech + fighters based army don't consume so many.
I hope to collect pretty much oil in 41-42 winter by doing nothing, and before this time axis units are not yet great oil consumers, anyway.

[Crazygunner1]

With later barbarossa I will gain more soviet oil also, and infantry + mech + fighters based army don't consume so many.
I hope to collect pretty much oil in 41-42 winter by doing nothing, and before this time axis units are not yet great oil consumers, anyway.

I strongly recommend that you attack Russia as soon as you can be ready(asuming it is summer)....a late Barbarossa is worse than early bad one. You won´t see that much resistance in 41 anyway by the russians so just get over there and take as much ground as possible with non oil units. Tuck in for winter, also build more tanks and mechs during winter to fight for real in Russia in summer 42. Main priority would be Caucasus then....

I think this will be and interesting game....you have got some tough years ahead but by no means over yet....

[Plaid]

I strongly recommend that you attack Russia as soon as you can be ready(asuming it is summer)....a late Barbarossa is worse than early bad one. You won´t see that much resistance in 41 anyway by the russians so just get over there and take as much ground as possible with non oil units. Tuck in for winter, also build more tanks and mechs during winter to fight for real in Russia in summer 42. Main priority would be Caucasus then....

Problem is that I hardly will be ready even by august (but on other hand, if I produce only infantry for now, maybe I can launch something in July).
Soviet 41 resistance depends on allied player - if I play allies and see a weak barbarossa, I will lose dozen of corps, but stop germans somewhere close to the border - if you save soviet territory you have no problems to replace moderate casualties. And if winter 41-42 will be calm, russians will also produce lots of tanks, mechs and air, so its all two edged.

Caucassus are dangerous - really big Baku oilfields are far behing mountains (its around 10 turns of marching through them without any fighting, and maybe just to face western allies here, who can easily rail to Iran port and ship units straight to Baku). Maikop and Grozny oil fields are small and in 3 supply zone, so they will never even pay off oil, burned to conquer them. Also again, if soviet player i.e. Zechi will decide to hold line further to the west, I probably will not be able to do anything with this.

[Plaid]

New year started with allied annexation of Syria. I will name my next built infantry corps "syrian", to represent some volunters from allied invaded country.

All quiet in England, Zechi just spent good deal of PPs to repair both BBs. Also I bombed low effectiveness garrison just to keep burning manpower and provide safe experience to bombers.



Research is going very good, soon I will get all 3 infantry techs and start stamping corps units.



Also I think about switching armour to tank destroyers, since I will not have numerous tanks, and will use them mostly to counter allied armour. But not worthy to do it before even seeing Red Army - maybe they go for mechs and air support, who knows.

Italian research also fine for now, air upgrades soon.

[Plaid]

Somehow I got fair weather this turn. Not like it was vital or expected, but still pretty useful - 2 garrisons destroyed, 1 reduced to 1 step and another - to six.



Not much other things to report. Next turn I am sending my transports, with all this garrisons gone I hope, that they can't be blocked all now.

[Plaid]

Expected winter weather is back, and also britts launched moderate effective, but pretty suicidal counterattacks against XIX panzer korps.
Probably they are just desperate - RAF lost, remains of RN trapped in ports, manpower draine, army is also crippled - even ordinary corps is rare thing - mostly germans face conscripts and militia. (First time I see attriction Sealion, often its more or less blitzkrieg)



German infantry trenches at beachhead :



Despite cold infantry still attack and destroy damaged corps unit.



Second wave transports sent - I decided not to overdoze forces, because I will pay for transports and still have only 2 invasion points and very reluctant to pay even 35 PPs for overuse. Instead I sent small elite force to places, where they simple can't be blocked (no garrisons, fake landings etc).

RN BB spotted near Lybian shore. Spotting my Tobruk defences for sure - maybe its time to place commanders there.

[Plaid]

Expected fair weather occured, so second wave of Sealion succesfully landed in good order - no cap overuses or casualties in transports.
So this troops damaged british forces, trying to defend beaches and now rush forward. Looks like this little "adventure" in England will be over soon at last.



Also I got good research results, but no vital fixed defences yet. Spent good deal of PPs to repair axis minor fighters, aswell as 6 step bomber at France (in this battle for Britain mostly my airforce suffer casualties, because after two bomber attacks garrison is close to 0 effectiveness, but when you do bombing, it tends to shot down few steps time by time).



P.S. Noticed british fighter attacking Bengazi port from Malta - it had same stats, as Italian one i.e. 1 level of dog fight. Looks like England is crippled good at least.

[Crazygunner1]

It seems like the will of Brittain has been broken, what i don´t understand is that he didn´t send any reinforcements from afrika to help defend England. Loosing brittain is a severe blow to the allies, i would do anything to to atleast keep germans fighting on the island as long as i could.

Given the facts in hand for Sealion, would you do it again, would you do anything different?

I feel that Norwich is the best port/city to go for, but on the other hand you get much better position to attack London from south.

Now you have atlest 3-4 turns to prepare for Russia, airforce you have pretty good coverage, you just need some infantry for the army. I think you can do an ok opening for Barbarossa all things considering.....

Have you decided what targets you will go for in the upcoming campaign in the East?

Like i said before, enjoy reading your AAr. Fun to see the outcome....

Crazyg

[Plaid]

Finally, things started to go just as planned.
What remains from British home guard force is in full flight, pursued by overwhelming mech spearheads and pounded with numerour axis airpower.



Zechi wrote:

British Government leaves London as overwhelming German forces land.

Just in time, because city is now blocked from land, sea and air. Also it means only 3 supply and no rail for rest british troops.

Garrisons shipped to take undefended cyties in northern Britain, now its long footwalk for britts to get there, so I will even wait and not overspend my invasion points.



British BBs brought some chaos to northern africa, but its all minor stuff.



Axis mobilisation : german infantry drafted and general Messe recruited to command Italians in africa.

[Crazygunner1]

Isn´t it better to have your defensive line in afrika where you have you italian fighter and mech? Since you have german inf corp defending tobruk with aircover, it should hold any attempts. Might be worth to get 3 supply instead of only 2 in desert.

Crazyg